Government officials mocked anti-whaling campaigner as a 'buffoon' when he was stabbed at sea

Friday, 30 November 2018

Conservationist Pete Bethune travels Asia, Central America and Africa on the lookout for illegal fishing.

Government officials exchanged emails with a controversial private security firm about environmentalist Pete Bethune and derided him 'mad as a box of frogs'.

Two top-level inquiries will examine the emails that a Stuff investigation helped bring them to light.

The Ministry for Primary Industries apologised to the Earthrace captain this week for a string of unprofessional and catty internal emails, in which staff gloated about his arrest on board a Japanese whaling ship. They dismissed him as 'full of his own self-importance'.

The Ministry released the emails to Bethune, but is refusing to hand over the correspondence between its staff and Thompson & Clark.

Bethune was captain of the eco-friendly Earthrace trimaran, which broke the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a motorized boat.

* 'I thought I was going to die': Eco-warrior Bethune knifed

* Unseen: A Stuff Circuit investigation**

In July, the Ministry referred evidence of serious staff misconduct to the Serious Fraud Office and the State Services Commission, which was already investigating the contracting of Thompson & Clark.

The security firm has a track record of targeting environmental activists, including anti-mining groups and Greenpeace.

Following Stuff inquiries, Bethune asked the Ministry to disclose information it held on him, as required by the Privacy Act.

Acting deputy director John Walsh wrote back confirming Bethune was the subject of emails between staff and Thompson & Clark. But he declined to release them because they were part of the evidence passed to the SFO and SSC inquiries.

'This not a decision MPI has taken lightly,' Walsh wrote. 'Please note that this decision is reflective of the current situation.'

On Friday, after further questions, Walsh called Bethune to assure him MPI didn't hire Thompson & Clark to keep him under surveillance.

Walsh also apologised for insults contained in 54 pages of internal MPI emails, which he sent to Bethune.

Bethune said the emails were 'pretty rough.' 'They don't seem to like me,' he added.

He's still puzzled why he was under discussion, and wonders if the investigators and MPI staff were swapping intelligence about him.

'There are emails between MPI and Thompson & Clark regarding me, there is no question. I still don't know what they were digging into,' Bethune said from the US.

'It is just a total waste of taxpayer funds for them to be targeting someone like me. I help government agencies all over the world with their fisheries. I think it is crazy.'

The Ministry emails that were released to Bethune date from January 2004 and reveal a hostile attitude to the campaigner, who hunts down poachers and illegal fishers with his Earthrace charity.

In February 2010, Bethune was stabbed trying to stop Japanese whalers. A news report shared with the attached message: 'If the Japanese crew have any sense (of humour) Captain Buffoon will be offered only one thing [whale meat] to eat while he experiences their hospitality.'

The recipient replied: 'That would be fantastic. I would love to see his reaction.'

A few months later, a note attached to a news clipping about Bethune's Tokyo court appearance referred to him as 'this clown.'

The emails show ministry staff didn't want the navy patrol boat HMNZS Taupo to investigate Bethune's reports that fishing vessels were illegal active in a marine sanctuary.

One wrote: 'We would rather [the navy] not go to the area as Bethune could then use that to say how effective he has been in getting a governmental response to his 'evidence'.'

In January 2013, one staffer wrote: 'Pete Bethune turned up … I showed him around the studio and mess etc, God the guy is a bit of a lost cause. He really is in la la land.'

Pete Bethune at a 'Save our Maui' protest march in Wellington in 2012. In January 2013, one MPI staffer wrote: 'Pete Bethune turned up ... I showed him around the studio and mess etc, God the guy is a bit of a lost cause. He really is in la la land.'

A colleague responded: 'Yeah Pete Bethune is in his own world now full of his own importance, he's lost more than he gained in my opinion.'

That infuriates Bethune – who nearly died last year in a stabbing attack in Brazil, where he was investigating the illegal smuggling of pets.

'I have put my life on the line for conservation. It's hard enough work without government agencies putting [activists] under surveillance because we are pointing out something that is embarrassing to them.

'Activists have a role to play where government agencies might be deficient.'

MPI declined to answer any questions on Bethune. But a spokeswoman confirmed Walsh had spoken to Bethune on Friday.